Monday, March 14, 2011

Q Lazzarus - Goodbye Horses (1988)

"Goodbye Horses" is a 1988 song sung by Q Lazzarus. It was written and produced by William Garvey. There are three versions of the song, of lengths 3:12, 4:20, and the extended version at 6:28.

According to its writer, "the song is about transcendence over those who see the world as only earthy and finite. The horses represent the five senses from Hindu philosophy (The Bhagavad Gita) and the ability to lift one’s perception above these physical limitations and to see beyond this limited Earthly perspective."

Q Lazzarus (born 1954) is a female American singer, best known as a one hit wonder for the 1988 song "Goodbye Horses", which was featured in Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs (the Buffalo Bill song), Clerks II, Lakai Footwear's Fully Flared, Rockstar's videogame Grand Theft Auto IV, EA's videogame Skate 3, and TV shows Family Guy (imitating Silence of the Lambs) and Nip Tuck. The music and lyrics of the song were written by William Garvey. It was originally recorded by Q Lazzarus in 1988, but later re-released as a single in 1991, with a greater duration, as a result of its appearance in Silence of the Lambs. The infamous scene in which the track plays has garnered it the popular nickname "The Buffalo Bill Song".

Q Lazzarus appeared in the 1986 film "Something Wild" performing "The Candle Goes Away" and the 1993 film Philadelphia performing "Heaven" from the Talking Heads album Fear of Music. She also contributed music to the 1996 underground film "Twisted".

Q Lazzarus is known for having a husky contralto voice. Before she was discovered as a singer, she worked as a taxi driver in New York City. The band dissolved at some point before 1996. Apart from Q, Mark Barrett and songwriter William Garvey, nothing is publicly known about the other band members.

Silence of the Lambs

The song is notably featured in the 1991 film The Silence of the Lambs during the scene in which serial killer "Buffalo Bill" applies make-up and dances in front of a video camera with his penis tucked between his legs as to give the appearance of a female mons. Originally in the film, Clarice Starling discussed both sheep and horses during the ranch slaughter ordeal; the script was shortened to only include the lambs, but the song remained. The song is not featured on the Silence of the Lambs soundtrack, although it appears on the soundtrack of the 1988 film Married to the Mob, also directed by Jonathan Demme. In 1991, Q Lazzarus released an extended version of Goodbye Horses to capitalize on the success of Silence of the Lambs (and the lack of the song on the motion picture soundtrack).

LYRICS

Ooooooooooooooo
Ooooooooooooooo

You told me, I see the rise
But, it always falls
I see them come, I see them go
He said, "All things pass into the night"
And I said, "Oh no sir I must say you're wrong
I must disagree, oh no sir, I must say you're wrong"
Won't you listen to me

You told me, I've seen it all before
I been there, I've seen my hopes and dreams
Lying on the ground

I've seen the sky just begin to fall
He said, "All things pass into the night"
And I say, "Oh no sir, I must say you're wrong
I must disagree, oh no sir, I must say you're wrong"
Won't you listen to me

Good-bye horses, I'm flying over you
Good-bye horses, I'm flying over you
Good-bye horses, I'm flying over you
Good-bye horses, I'm flying, flying, flying over you

Ooooooooooooooo
Ooooooooooooooo

Clerks II

During Clerks II, the aforementioned Silence of the Lambs scene is parodied by Jay and Silent Bob, when Jay, having bemoaned his boredom while milling around outside the Mooby's restaurant and trying to stay clean of drugs, begins dancing to the song almost exactly as Buffalo Bill did after Silent Bob plays it on their boom box, using chapstick in the same manner as Buffalo Bill's lipstick. Jay quotes Buffalo Bill by saying "Would you fuck me? ... I'd fuck me ... I'd fuck me hard..." When Dante's fiance pulls him out of Mooby's telling him she has a surprise for him, Jay holds his coat (borrowed from Silent Bob) open to reveal himself nude with his penis tucked back in the same manner Buffalo Bill did when he was dancing in front of the video camera. Then Dante says "Is this my surprise?", and his fiance answers "no" while Jay sings "Goodbye Horses". A deleted scene from Clerks II shows an extended version of the "tuck dance", without Goodbye Horses playing. A mock message is shown before the scene, saying that they could not afford the $18,000 needed to use "Goodbye Horses" in the scene, and that the audience should imagine "Goodbye Horses" being played. After the scene, the messages continue with other mock messages, suggesting that the reason for there being no money to license the song was because Jason Mewes spent all of the licensing budget on transsexual prostitutes.

Fully Flared

A 2007 release of Lakai Limited Footwear's skateboard team video, titled Fully Flared features the song during Marc Johnson's part, an "in the know" homage to Buffalo Bill..

Grand Theft Auto IV

The underground hit song can be found on LRR 97.8 Liberty Rock Radio in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV.

Family Guy

The song is featured in the Season 7 Family Guy episode Stew-Roids, with Chris parodying the Buffalo Bill scene from The Silence of the Lambs.

Nip/Tuck

The song is featured in a scene aired on Wed. Nov 25 2009 on FX entitled Alexis Stone II #6.7

Skate 3

The song is featured in the 2010 video game Skate 3.

Covers

In 1996, Psyche's cover version of "Goodbye Horses" was released as the b-side to their single "You Ran Away". This recording became popular enough that the band decided to make an extended version and include it on their album Strange Romance at the end of the same year. When the trailer for Clerks 2 appeared promoting the movie, Psyche entered the Top Ten downloads on iTunes Electronic chart. The song is featured on two best of compilations, Misguided Angels (2000) and Legacy (2004), as well as a recent limited Australian tour CD collection entitled Club Salvation, and remains a staple in the band's live repertoire to this day.

Over the last decade the song has been covered by other performers including Gil Mantera's Party Dream. In 2009, The Airborne Toxic Event began performing a cover of the song in their live performances. The Whitest Boy Alive covered the song during Lowlands '09. In October 2009, Brad Sucks released a cover of "Goodbye Horses" on his website. At their NYE 2010/2011 show, Snowden debuted a cover featuring Corinne on lead vocals. However, aside from the original, only Psyche's interpretation has maintained its popularity.

Electronic band Fan Death and garage-revival band Harlem have also covered the song, and it is currently being performed at live shows by Liverpudlian band Lovecraft, recently signed to the Probe Plus label.

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